Internet services also restored as situation stabilizes in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s constitutional order has been restored after an “an attempted coup d’état” was thwarted, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Monday. Internet services have also returned to Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, following a five-day blackout.
“Order has been fully restored in Kazakhstan. Threats to the security of the country have been repelled,” said Tokayev during a video link with leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Tokayev said that a large-scale “counter-terrorism” operation would soon end along with a CSTO mission that had 2,030 troops and 250 pieces of military hardware.
Tokayev said that “armed militants” had sought to use protests as a pretext and their “main goal was obvious: the undermining of the constitutional order, the destruction of government institutions and the seizure of power”.
The oil and gas-rich Central Asian nation has been gripped by unrest since January 2 after mass protests broke out over a fuel price hike in the worst violence in Kazakhstan’s 30 years of independence.
The situation is steadily stabilizing in Kazakhstan, according to the country’s National Security Committee. “As of January 10, the situation is under control. National and regional operational headquarters responsible for fighting terrorists have eliminated the hotbeds of the terrorist threat,” said the committee in a statement. All seized administrative facilities in Almaty, Kyzylorda, Taldykorgan, and Taraz have been recaptured.
As many as 7,939 people were detained during the violence, according to the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs. More than 2,000 injured during several days of violence and scores of citizens and more than a dozen security forces personnel were killed.
Russian troops will stay to finish job in Kazakhstan: Putin
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that recent unrest in Kazakhstan had been caused by “destructive internal and external forces” and that more than 2,000 troops his country had sent as “peacekeepers” would leave once their mission was complete.
Putin said the troops would remain “for a limited time period” and as long as Kazakhstan president “considers it necessary.” The Russian leader added that CSTO has “proven its potential, its ability to act swiftly, decisively and efficiently.” Putin made the comments at a meeting of CSTO, a body equivalent to NATO that includes six members — Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, State Secretary of Kazakhstan Erlan Karin clarified that “the CSTO mission is exclusively peacekeeping and is planned for a short period of time. Once the situation is stabilized, the entire CSTO peacekeeping contingent will be withdrawn”, adding that CSTO will provide security for essential facilities locally.
